This invention relates to currency note containers of the kind used with cash dispensing machines. Such containers will hereinafter be referred to as-currency cassettes.
Currency cassettes are used, for example, in automated teller machines (ATMs) of the kind wherein a user inserts a customer identifying card into the machine and then enters certain data (such as codes, quantity of currency required, type of transaction, etc.,) upon one or more keyboards associated with the machine. The machine will then process the transaction, update the user's account to reflect the current transaction, dispense cash, when requested, extracted from one or more currency cassettes mounted in the machine, and return the card to the user as part of a routine operation.
In an ATM, it is desirable that an indication be given when the number of currency notes remaining in a currency cassette has reached a predetermined low level, so that arrangements can be made for the cassette to be replenished, or replaced by a ready-loaded cassette, prior to the cassette becoming exhausted of currency notes. A currency cassette having a low level indication feature enables the time for which an ATM employing the cassette is out of operation to be kept to a minimum.
A known currency cassette having a low level indication feature employs a permanent magnet incorporated in a pusher assembly for a stack of notes in the cassette, the magnet being arranged to cooperate with a magnetically operable reed switch mounted in a cash dispenser unit in which the cassette is adapted to be inserted. The reed switch is mounted so that when the cassette is fully inserted in the cash dispenser unit the switch is positioned adjacent the note exit end of the cassette. In operation, as notes are extracted from the exit end of the cassette, the pusher assembly carrying the permanent magnet moves towards the note exit end until eventually the magnetic field in the vicinity of the reed switch becomes sufficiently high to operate the switch. Operation of the switch can be utilized to provide an indication that the number of notes remaining in the cassette has reached a predetermined low level. This known cassette has the disadvantage that it is not possible to adjust the level at which a low level indication is given. Another disadvantage of this known cassette is that the magnet must reach a position fairly close to the reed switch before the switch is operated; in practice, this means that a low level indication is only given when a relatively few number of notes, say 75 notes, remain in the cassette.